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[clucky]

Hi - we have four chickens, 2 speckled marans (hybrid), a welsumer and a brown sussex (I think) - pure breed. We have had them exactly 2 weeks now, the 2 pure breeds faces are pretty dark pink now even though their combs and wattles are not very big yet, they are about 20 weeks old. How much longer until they start laying? I know the 2 marans are very young yet about 17 weeks so we expect a while for them but what age do they actually start laying? We can't wait!! Really appreciate some answers.

[AJuff]

Welcome to the forum! Pink faces are a good sign of getting ready to lay. Are you girls crouching as you approach them yet? It's usually about a week after that they lay their first egg.

[Jaime]

My speckledy/maran didnt start laying until 24 weeks - in fact thinking about it all of them started to lay at about that age.

 

Dont worry about when - just enjoy them as your pets - it's a fantastic surprise on the day you look into the nesting box and find your first egg.

[menagerie]

I didn't understand the crouching thing until they started doing it - it is obvious, they stop dead, squat down, flatten their backs and stick their wings out a bit. It then took 8 days after that for 2 of mine to start laying. And it's so much fun when they do lay and egg!

[arowland17]

Ours both do the crouching thing and we've had 3 eggs and I just posted on here as we're confused over which one is laying - we thought it was the larger, redder-faced, tamer hen with larger comb but caught the other one in the act yesterday so have been thrown into confusion! Am now thinking they may be both laying just not everyday yet!

 

Ours are RIR/light sussex crosses and are coming up to 25 weeks - our breeder said the hybrids start laying at 20-22 weeks, and 1st crosses like ours start later at about 25 weeks as they are more like pure breeds so I would assume the pure breed would start at around 25 weeks too....